The invention relates to a dispenser bottle with at least two receiving containers for active fluids thus able to be stored separately from one another, with the features of the introductory part of claim 1.
The use of active fluids which are to be or must be stored separately from one another is known from some fields of use, particularly in the area of cleaning of surfaces. These active fluids are to meet one another only shortly before or during application to the application region, for example a floor, the surface of a toilet bowl, etc. Examples of such are bleaching, cleaning, decalcifying and disinfecting agents containing chlorine (for example, WO 98/21308 A2). Active fluids of the kind in question are also applied to, for example, bathroom surfaces or in other hygienically sensitive areas.
Active fluids are stored in different receiving containers particularly when they are not stable in storage in common with one another. However, other reasons are also known for separate storage of active fluids which have to be applied in common, for example different colorations which are to communicate different functions of the active fluids, different sensitivity to light, etc.
The dispenser bottle for at least two different active fluids not stable in storage with one another, from which the invention proceeds (WO 98/21308 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,846 A), comprises a bottle which has two chambers separate from one another and forming the receiving containers and which is provided at the upper end with directly adjacent outlets for the active fluids in the two receiving containers. A first aqueous solution is disposed in one receiving container and a second aqueous solution in the second receiving container. The concentration of the components in the two aqueous solutions is in that case selected so that when a specific quantity of the first aqueous solution is mixed with a specific quantity of the second aqueous solution the acidic bleaching solution desired in this state of the art is the result.
The disclosure content of the two afore-mentioned prior-published specifications is included, by reference, in the disclosure content of the present patent application.
The dispenser bottle of the state of the art explained above and forming the starting point comprises a pump device that can be placed on the outlets of the two receiving containers of the dispenser bottle. The active fluids are led together in the pump device and expelled from a discharge nozzle in a common spray jet. The active fluids are thus intermixed before they leave the discharge nozzle.
A similar dispenser bottle in which cross-contamination between the two receiving containers can be substantially securely avoided is similarly known (WO 91/04923 A1; DE 690 16 44 T2). No pump spray device is provided in this dispenser bottle, but the outlets are simply open and provided with spouts and can be closed again by a closure cap. This dispenser bottle is not, however, suitable for a spray application.
In spite of that, for constructional details the disclosure content of these prior-published specifications is also inducted, by reference, into the disclosure content of the present patent application.
A dispenser bottle for an active fluid with a receiving container of flexible plastics material and a discharge nozzle is known for, in particular, cleaning of lavatory bowls (EP 0 911 616 B1), wherein for optimum application of the active fluid in the toilet bowl, particularly under the inner edge thereof, the discharge nozzle is constructed as an angled dosing tube.
In the case of washing agents in liquid form, particularly when they contain water, due to chemical incompatibility of the individual ingredients negative interactions of these ingredients between one another and a decrease in their activity and thus a decrease in the washing capability of the agent overall can happen even when there is only relatively short storage. This decline in activity in principle concerns all washing agent ingredients which undergo chemical reactions in the washing process in order to contribute to the washing result, particularly bleaching agents and enzymes, although also surface-active or sequestration ingredients responsible for dissolving processes or complexing steps are not unlimitedly stable in storage particularly in the presence of the mentioned chemically reactive ingredients in aqueous systems. A possible way out results, for example, from the fact that the reactivity of the chemically active ingredients is not of the same degree for all pH values, so that through appropriate setting of the pH value of the agent the harmful action of an ingredient or its degradation reaction can be minimised. However, a difficulty then results due to the fact that the minimum of the reactivity of the chemically active ingredients does not lie at the same pH value and therefore stabilisation by way of the pH value is normally not possible for all ingredients at the same time. A further difficulty results from the fact that the pH value lying as close as possible to the reactivity minimum during storage has to change under conditions of use of the agent so that the reactivity of the chemically active ingredients can be higher under washing conditions and they are thereby shifted into a position of being able to make their contribution to the washing result.
For resolving this problem it has been variously proposed in the state of the art not to introduce all washing agent ingredients, which are desirable for a good washing result, into a liquid washing agent at the same time, but to make available to the washing agent user several components which the user is to combine only shortly before or during the washing process and each contain only mutually compatible ingredients and which are to be used together under use conditions.
Thus, there is known from International Patent Application WO 00/11713 A1 a liquid washing agent which consists of at least two liquid part compositions, wherein the active fluids are kept separately from one another in a container with at least two chambers (receiving containers) and of which at least one comprises an imine or oxaziridine bleach activator and at least one other comprises an alkalising agent, wherein at least one of the part compositions contains a per-oxygen bleaching agent and each part composition has a pH value leading to stability. When the part compositions are mixed the pH value of the end composition increases due to the alkalising agent so that bleaching agent and bleach activator effectively react with one another.
A dispenser with two chambers is known from European Patent Specification EP 0 807 156 B1, the first chamber of which contains an aqueous composition of hydrogen peroxide or an organic peracid with a pH value above 2 and below 7 and the second chamber of which contains an acidic component and from which the content is delivered together or in succession onto a surface so that the resulting mixture has a pH value of at most 2.
International Patent Application WO 94/15465 A1 describes a two-pack system of on the one hand an aqueous aliphatic peracid and on the other hand an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution containing corrosion inhibitor, peracid stabiliser and/or hydrogen peroxide stabiliser. The two solutions are combined to produce a disinfecting agent.
It is proposed in German Patent Application DE 100 24 251 A1 to store appropriately separately in a double-chamber bottle a bleaching agent, which in a first component consists of an aqueous 1 to 40 weight percent aqueous imidoperoxocarboxylic acid dispersion and in a second component of a substance mixture activating the first component, and to mix the two components only at the time of use. The second component, which in this specification is also termed pH-regulating buffer solution, consists of an aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium carbonate which has been thickened with the help of methyl cellulose.
The teaching has the object of indicating a dispenser bottle with at least two receiving containers for two active fluids, which can be produced economically and easily handled by a user and in that case allows application of two active fluids separately from one another, but coming together in an application field.